Deutschland (1916)

During the First World War, Great Britain imposed an economic naval blockade of Germany. This caused significant difficulties in the necessary supplies of raw materials, equipment and materials for the warring country. The German government decided to build submarine merchant ships of blockers capable of delivering the necessary to "bypass" the sea blockade of the Entente ^[2] .

The first such vessel was the Deutschland submarine commercial vehicle. The submarine was designed under the guidance of engineer Rudolf Erbach ( German: Rudolf Erbach ), and on March 28 ( April 10 ), 1916 , she left the Germaniawerft slipways of Friedrich Krupp in Kiel ^[1] . The cost of construction cost 4 million marks .

The ship's surface displacement was 1575 tons: it could take on board up to 750 tons of cargo. The liquid fuel reserve (200 tons) allowed the submarine to cover a distance of 12,000 miles with a 10- nodal move. The crew → 25 people consisted of: captain, senior mechanic, two watch officers, six assistants, four engine drivers, six minders , four sailors and a cook ^[1] .

Leaving Bremen on June 1 ( 14 ), 1916 , a boat under the control of Captain Paul König ( German: Paul König ) headed to Helgoland , where she stood for 9 days to knock the enemy off the track, since her exit from the German port could not go unnoticed from side of the British.

On June 10 ( 23 ), 1916 the boat’s path was continued ^[1] . Given that the Dover Strait was very strictly guarded and protected by nets, the captain of the ship chose the path north of Scotland ^[3] .

For the most part, the boat went in the water position and only when any vessel appeared it went under water and went using periscopes , and if this seemed risky, it completely disappeared under the water. According to the commander of the boat, during this passage she had to lie on the seabed only once for several hours, and then, going to the Atlantic Ocean , she went on the surface and only approached Cape Virginia (at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay ), plunged into water for several hours, as two suspicious vessels were noticed. From the cape to Baltimore she walked on the surface and arrived there on June 27 ( July 10 ) 1916 , making the transition from Helgoland in 16 days and covering a distance of 3800 nautical miles ^[3] .

The announcement of the arrival of a German submarine in the United States excited the governments of Great Britain and France . At the request of the ambassadors of these countries, on July 12 ( 25 ), 1916 , a commission from the United States Naval Department arrived on the ship with an inspection. Inspecting the ship, inspectors noted the absence of any weapons or military personnel on board. The vessel was recognized as commercial by the commission. This caused a noticeable irritation in Britain. July 19 ( August 1 ) 1916 in the English newspaper an official report was published on this subject ^[1] :

Based on its nature, Deutschland should be considered a warship and we must deal with it accordingly. In the event that the Allied warships meet him outside the US maritime border, they will sink him without warning.

- Taras A.E. “Submarines of the Great War. 1914 - 1918. "

It was also announced that 8 cruisers would be sent to the US coast to capture and expose the “Deutschland” ^{[4] [5]} .

During the stay of the German trade submarine Deutschland in Baltimore, American journalists had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with its structure and, based on the information they received from the Germans, drawings of its “internal structure” were placed in Scientific American magazine ^[3] .

The submarine left Baltimore on August 2 ( 15 ), 1916, and arrived in Bremerhaven on August 24 ( September 6 ), 1916 with a cargo of 341 tons of nickel , 93 tons of tin and 348 tons of crude rubber , of which 257 tons were transported secured outside a solid body. The cargo brought was estimated at 17.5 million marks , several times higher than the cost of the submarine itself. She walked 8450 nautical miles (15 650 km), of which only 190 miles (350 km) in the underwater position ^[3] .

"Deutschland" made another flight to the United States in November 1916 to New London , Connecticut with cargo on$ 140,000 , including gems, securities and medicines ^[6] .

On November 16 ( 29 ), 1916 , when leaving the port of Deutschland, accidentally rammed and flooded the tugboat TA Scott, Jr., and five people died on board the wreck. The bow of the boat was also damaged and she was forced to return to New London for repairs, which delayed her access to the sea for a week. She left New London on November 21 ( December 4 ), 1916 with a cargo of 6.5 tons of silver bullion.

The third US trade trip, scheduled for January-February 1917, was canceled due to a sharp deterioration in German-American relations due to the frequent attacks of German submarines on coalition merchant ships in the Atlantic ^[6] , and on April 6 ( 19 ), 1917 , the USA announced Germany's war.

The submarine Deutschland was transferred to the German Imperial Fleet on February 19, 1917 and was converted from underwater transport into a military submarine U-155.

She was equipped with 6 bow torpedo tubes with 18 torpedoes and two 150 mm guns ^[7] , taken from the battleship ^[8] .

The U-155 cruiser participated in three successful military campaigns, sinking 42 enemy ships and seriously damaging one ^[9] .

During the summer of 1917, the U-155 crew under the command of Karl Meisel ( German: Karl Meusel ) made a 105-day combat campaign (May 24 - September 4).

This first cruise almost ended in disaster - on May 27 near the Norwegian island of U-155 was tracked down and almost flooded by the German U-19 ^{[10] [11]} .

During a long stay in the campaign, the boat sank 19 merchant ships, of which 19 armed British and Allied merchant ships attacked, only 9 were destroyed. By the time U-155 returned to Germany, it had covered 10,220 miles, of which only 620 were underwater.

In his reports, Meisel noted that during the entire campaign he observed only one enemy warship - an auxiliary cruiser . During most of the trip, the weather was fine, which greatly facilitated the successful attacks and transitions of the U-155.

Subsequently, cruises of equal and even longer duration were undertaken, nevertheless, the first combat campaign of U-155 stands out as one of the longest campaigns committed by submarines of that time ^[12] .

January 14, 1918, under the command of Eckelmann ( German: Erich Eckelmann ) U-155 left Kiel to the Azores . Upon his return, on May 4, the commander reported on the destruction of enemy ships with a total displacement of 50,000 tons ^{[13] [5]} .

Among the destroyed ships was the coal fleet of the Italian fleet “Sterope” (9550 tons), from which he took 45 tons of liquid fuel on April 7. He also robbed and sunk the Spanish ship "Giralda" (2194 tons) - the 56th in a row sunken Spanish ship ^[13] .

The cruiser returned to Germany from the last campaign on November 12, 1918 and was transferred as part of the reparation on November 24 along with other British submarines. The boat was delivered to England and put on public display in London and other cities. In 1921, the ship was sold for scrap. After the explosion on board on September 17, 1921, it was completely dismantled ^{[6] [2] [14]} .

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